BACKGROUND: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is considered as a peripheral neuromuscular disorder. Some investigations demonstrate that MG affects central nervous system (CNS), and there are disorders in cognitive function, affection, sleep, mental status and others; however, there are also some different standpoints. Some questions are still disputed, such as whether or not MG exists in the CNS and cognitive function is impaired.DATA SOURCES; Using the terms of "myasthenia gravis, neuropsychological test, memory, central, brain,cognitive dysfunction and so on", we searched the Medline database for the articles about CNS involved in MG, nerve and neuropsychology as well as cognitive function, which were published in the English language between January 198,5 and December 2004. Meanwhile, we also searched CNKI database by inputting "myasthenia gravis, neuropsychology and cognitive function" in Chinese for articles about involved neuropsychology and cognitive function which were published between October 1995 and June 2006 in the Chinese language.STUDY SElECTroN: Data were checked in the first trial, and articles about the influences of MG on CNS,neuropsychology, cognitive function and central cholinergic function were selected, then those were obviously unrelated with above criteria were excluded. Articles which expound the influences of MG on neuropsychology and cognitive were included, but those with repeated contents were also excluded.DATA EXTRACTTON: A total of 89 related English articles and 34 Chinese articles were collected, including 43studies on involved CNS and 32 studies on involved central cholinergic function and cholinergic receptor.Sixty-three literatures were about neuropsychology and cognitive function, which were closely related with this article. Seventy-two articles met inclusive criteria and 66 were excluded. Thirty of sevetty-two were chosen for analysis.DATA SYNTHESrs: MG is an autoimmune disease of muscular diseased fatigue induced by transmission blockage of acetylcholine at the peripheral neuromuscular junction. The mini-mental state examination,Wechsler memory scale, Wechsler adult intelligence scale, Boston naming test and Rey auditory verb and learning test, etc. Were used in the domestic and foreign studies of cognitive function of patients with MG for detecting memory, attention, fluency of reaction as well as information-processing velocity, etc.CONCLUSrON: It is thought in some investigations that disorders of memory, mental status, attention, fluency of reaction, information-processing velocity and other cognitive dysfunctions exist in patients with MG.However, there are some anti-standpoints on cognitive dysfunction caused by MG, and more work must be done for further exploration.